Ceramic armor structures are well known as shown in the co-pending applications, assigned to the assignee of this application, Ser. Nos. 594,649 filed Nov. 14, 1966, and 665,669 filed Aug. 29, 1967. Such armor devices make use of a ceramic plate of alumina, silicon carbide, or preferably boron carbide adhesively bonded to a fiber glass backing. The ceramic plate is effective to shatter the hardened steel core of an armor piercing projectile to effectively spread the force over a relatively wide area. The fiber glass layer adhered to the rear side of the ceramic plate serves to absorb the kinetic energy released upon the impact of the shattered projectile against the hard ceramic facing. In order to defeat projectiles having armor piercing cores even harder than hardened steel, an improved hard facing is needed for this type of laminated armor structure.